Duke Football Notebook – Week Four

The Duke Blue Devils are off to a 3-0 start this season with cross-town rival North Carolina Central next on their schedule. Duke will take on the Eagles on Brooks Field in Wallace Wade Stadium in a game which kicks off at 3:30. The contest can be seen on the ACC Network.

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced today that the kickoff time for the Virginia Tech at Duke game on September 29th will get a prime time 7:00 start. That game will be on either ESPN 2 or ESPNU. Both teams could come into the game undefeated if they get by this week's opponents.

Dylan Singleton and Jack Wolabaugh earned ACC Player of the Week honors this week.

Making his first career start in Saturday’s 40-27 win at Baylor, Wohlabaugh posted a team-best offensive line grade, along with four knockdown blocks. He spearheaded a Duke offense that yielded zero sacks, committed zero penalties and suffered zero turnovers. Wohlabaugh provided protection for quarterback Quentin Harris, who in his first career start threw three touchdown passes with no interceptions.

Singleton carded seven tackles, caused one fumble, recovered another and broke up a pass in the Blue Devils’ win at Baylor. His fumble recovery midway through the first quarter set up Duke’s first touchdown. Singleton led the Duke defense, which shut out Baylor in the first half en route to building a 23-0 lead at intermission.

The Blue Devils may rest a lot of players in this weeks game. Starting quarterback Daniel Jones is sure to be out. Center Zach Harmon was available this past Saturday but did not play. Defensive End, Terrell Lucas will likely miss another game. Mark Gilbert is of course, out for the season and Jeremy McDuffie and Aaron Young are day to day. Christian Harris and Rak Chambers also missed some game time at Baylor on the offensive front and their injuries are unknown at this time.

The Blue Devils win got them some vote in the new Top 25 polls. Duke is 28th in the A.P. and 27th in the Coaches Poll.

Closing thoughts - Duke is riding high after a 3-0 start and they should be. However, injuries are stacking up. Thankfully, we are seeing that Duke has more depth than in the past which has offset that to date.

Some old demons reared their ugly head when Duke had a punt blocked which gave up some momentum and a touchdown in the win over Baylor. Duke also had a botched XP. It is something to keep an eye on in the weeks to come.

The one good thing about Jones being out is seeing Quentin Harris gain some needed experience. He missed on some easy passes early but overall he played a phenomenal game against Baylor. He should be more comfortable in the pocket this week and David Cutcliffe has some film where he can work with him better on his play,

The stat of the wee was no penalties. That does not happen very often and it can mean the difference in games. It made up for the blocked punt.

It has to feel good for the Duke staff to have two power five conference road wins in their first three games. After all, only Duke Football can claim that feat. The Blue Devils have started the last two season 3-0.